Rosen’s descriptions betray his nerdy excitement — “The Phoenician ‘Q’ from 1000 BCE was ‘qoph’ which possibly meant ‘monkey,’ possibly ‘a ball of wool’!” — and also make you reconsider the purpose of individual letters.

The first letter "ق," qoph, is pronounced as a "k" sound and usually transliterated as a "q."

The reason the most common spelling of Gaddafi begins with a "g" is due of the Libyan dialect, which pronounces qoph like a "g" sound.